Tenacious D

Tuesday, 05 June 2012

I don't really stay up late to watch the variety shows, but among the late night stars, you would have to agree that Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon are the more internet savvy host. You can tell because their guests include internet-stars and commentaries on the latest viral videos.

Jimmy Fallon's latest album release, Blow Your Pants Off, is coming out June 12th, and features audio recording of his music-related skits that originally aired on his show. I think it's a smart move to bring awareness to how creative and original his songs are, and also involves absolutely no work on his part because all these songs are done and recorded!

Overall, this is a great comedy/music album, but I do have some issues with it: because it was recorded with a live studio audience, you do hear the laughter and hand-claps. I know sometime it's good to hear the crowd's feedback, but sometime it is distracting and it feels like you're missing out because you're wondering what the visual cues were. In fact, I ended up going online to try and track some of these videos to see what I was missing. Unfortunately, due to the wisdom of NBC, most of these videos are not available on youtube because of copyright take-downs. It's also lame because NBC refuses to put up these clips on their own website (was this done specifically to sell Fallon's album?)

The other problem I had was that I'm not that into kid pop songs, so the cover of "Whip My Hair" by Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen was lost on me, but I got the gist of it because Young does an excellent re-imagining of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (his version actually sounds pretty amazing).
Same goes for Rebecca Black's "Friday" cover, which is seriously outdated (hey, people it's 2012).

The songs I did "get", I absolutely think they are pretty incredible and funny. "Tebowie" is a stand-out cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity", about Tim Tebow's Christian faith. Sample lyrics:

Tim Tebow to Jesus Christ
Can't win by myself but with your help I might
Tim Tebow to Jesus Christ
Commencing fourth down hut hut hike
Snap the football and may God's love be with me

Like Tebowie, the Doors singing "Reading Rainbow" is pretty awesome too (just imagine that kids-friendly song turning into an acid-style trip as only Jim Morrison can sing). Same goes for Bob Dylan's "Charles in Charge".

A really entertaining album, it's highly recommended if you like Jimmy Fallon or comedy music. If you end up purchasing the album, you can get a variety of packages (the sunstache sunglasses looks amazing, I wish I could just order that by itself instead of the most expensive bundle) at blowyourpantsoff.com.
If you would rather just get the digital album, iTunes is offering 2 bonus tracks not found on the standard CD: "Jeremy (Linsanity)" and "Let Us Play With Your Look". The latter is kind of a toss-away, the title is the only lyric that gets repeated until you want to shoot yourself. "Jeremy" is pretty funny, I believe that's Eddie Vedder singing about basketball player Jeremy Lin, but in the style of his band, Pearl Jam's famous "Jeremy" song.

PS, the cover, as shown on amazon is a censored version, you can see the uncensored version here. I don't really know what the big deal is, it's "tastefully" done and I just don't understand why people find it offensive.

Speaking of censored cover artwork - what is up with the censoring of Tenacious D's third album, Rize of the Phoenix? I had no issues with the album artwork, but I guess people are sensitive to these sort of things. It would've been less subtle if they had just called the album "Rise of the Penis", you know? If you want to see the uncensored artwork, click here.

As part of the promotion of the album, the duo offered audio commentary to each of their song via Spotify, which is great for people who has this software. Sorry, since I don't listen to music on my computer and don't want to pay for Spotify's mobile services, I'll just sit this one out.

Anyway, thanks to the controversy, the duo has been selling out their shows in London (but I suspect this has more to do with the star power of Jack Black and Dave Grohl).

Speaking of sex, this comedy ukulele/acoustic duo Garfunkel and Oates released their third album, Slippery When Moist , four months ago (February 21, 2012). As you can guess, they took their name from the two sidekick partners of Simon & Garfunkel and Hall & Oates.

I think they are very funny, but their new song, "29/31", is borderline depressing! I guess it's funny if you're already married (one can only hope that Kate or Riki are still single). The song isn't on any album, I believe they just wrote it, you can see it for yourself on their blog.

By the way, my favorite song off the Bon Jovi-inspired title album is the 'accidently masturbating' song, "Kart Racing". If you haven't heard of it, just youtube it or something. Warning: you might get distracted and end up seeing their amazing one-take video for "Handjob, Bland Job, I don't understand Job":

Garfunkel and Oates is featured on Comedy Central's “The Half-Hour”, this June 8th. They will also be playing live at LARGO in Los Angeles on June 22nd. Expect to see them on HBO somewhen in the near future. I can only hope it'll be more like "Flight of the Conchords"-style comedy… but with more sex.

The Jesus and Mary Chain: Barbed Wire Kisses by Zoë Howe (St Martin's Press)
The Scottish shoegazing / alternative band The Jesus and Mary Chain has a new book written by Zoë Howe called The Jesus and Mary Chain: Barbed Wire Kisses (named after their 1999 album) out today on St Martin's Press.

The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer (Grand Central Publishing)
With this upcoming sold out show at the Cedar Cultural Center on Sunday, November 16th, I see that it is essentially a book signing tour for her new book The Art of Asking.... however, knowing Palmer, I am pretty there will be some singing/dancing involved, as well as an appearance from Neil Gaiman and other special guests.

Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones by Paul Trynka (Viking)
The vast majority of the book is focused on Brian Jones and the early days of the Rolling Stones, like the book title suggest, but like many of you, I was more interested in his death - which happened less than a month after he was walked away from the band.

A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren (Viking)
Fans searching for an account of the life of enigmatic and underappreciated singer/songwriter Alex Chilton need look no further; March 24th marks the release of “A Man Called Destruction” by Holly George-Warren, a thorough and highly enjoyable document of Chilton’s life and career.

Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen (Viking)
Eminent Hipsters is the new memoir by Donald Fagen, best known as the singer/songwriter of 70's jazz/rock band, Steely Dan.
I can't hear "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" without instantly being transported back to childhood memories of riding in the way, way back of my parent's station wagon, with the ol' Steely Dan cassette playing in the woodgrain dashboard.

Autobiography by Morrissey (Penguin Classics)
As a Morrissey fan, I should tell you that this is the first time Morrissey will tell his story in his own words. Previously official biography Landscapes of the Mind by David Bret was, how shall I say it, boring.

Stone Roses: War and Peace by Simon Spence (St. Martin's Griffin)
When I started reading War and Peace, I quickly realized how very little I knew about the Stone Roses. Most of my recollections of the band were through the NME, Melody Maker, and Select Magazines, which does not really paint a picture of how it was back then.

2015:
Since Select Magazine went away in 2000, Uncut Magazine took over as my favorite music magazine. In their latest issue, which came out in the stores in the UK this week (January 27th), they featured the 30th Anniversary of Meat is Murder with a The Smiths cover.